Month: July 2021

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Civil servant position at The Ocean Ecology Laboratory

Open position:

The Ocean Ecology Laboratory at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is looking to hire an Ocean Biogeochemical Modeler.  This is a full-time civil servant position at the GS-14 level, and it is open to all USA citizens. 

Background:

The Ocean Ecology Laboratory is responsible for the collection, processing, calibration, validation, archive, and distribution of ocean-related products from many operational, satellite-based remote-sensing missions providing ocean color, sea surface temperature, and sea surface salinity data to the international research community since 1996. The Ocean Ecology Laboratory also conducts research in ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry, atmospheric composition, and laboratory protocols using a combination of laboratory and field experiments, remote sensing measurements, and modeling.  The Ocean Ecology Laboratory is located at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD.  More information about our lab can be found at:

https://science.gsfc.nasa.gov/earth/oceanecology/

https://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Duties:

The selected candidate will lead efforts in the assimilation of ocean color remote sensing data into global and regional biogeochemical models. This effort has two goals: 1) Develop a better understanding of regional and global biogeochemical processes, 2) evaluate how satellite ocean color products can be improved or modified to increase usefulness for global and regional modeling.

Specific duties include:

  • Lead the development and application of global and regional biogeochemical modeling for Earth System Science research.
  • Lead the assimilation of satellite remote sensing data into biogeochemical models.
  • Publication of research papers in peer-reviewed journals

·      Support the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) Mission’s Project Scientist in the evaluation of ocean and atmosphere retrieval algorithms developed within the competed PACE Science and Applications Team (SAT).

·      Lead and participate in research proposals in the fields of ocean and atmospheric remote sensing, ocean biology and biogeochemistry, atmospheric composition and modeling.  The successful candidate is expected to maintain a portfolio of funded research. 

·      Lead and participate in the publication of research manuscripts.  The successful candidate is expected to publish 1-2 papers per year. 

·      Contribute to the development of future airborne and spaceborne instrumentation and missions, in-situ instrumentation, and field campaigns pursued within The Ocean Ecology Laboratory, including requirements analyses and proposal development.

·      Other duties as required by the civil service

Education:

Ph.D or equivalent experience in Engineering or Physical Sciences.

Experience:

Demonstrable experience in:

  1. Global and regional biogeochemical modeling
  2. Assimilation of satellite remote sensing data into biogeochemical models
  3. Sensitivity analyses
  4. Publication of research papers in peer-reviewed journals
  5. Preparation of successful research proposals

Applications for this position will have to be submitted via USA Jobs https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/607108500 . The position will be open for applications from July 22 through July 26.  Those who might be interested in applying are encouraged to become familiar with USA Jobs.

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SeaHawk begins routine operations

It is our great pleasure to announce that after 2 ½ years of intensive and at times, quite challenging commissioning efforts, our little SeaHawk Cubesat with the HawkEye ocean color instrument onboard entered its routine operations phase on Monday, 21 June 2021.  As with all things that are being attempted for the first time, there were many unforeseen hurdles to overcome and problems to solve but to quote William Shakespeare from Henry VIII – “To climb steep hills requires slow pace at first”.  

Well, we have climbed a very steep hill but the view from the top is magnificent as you can see by taking a look at just a few example images that have been acquired by HawkEye. Full details including links about the mission, its history, data products, operations and data access can be found at: https://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/hawkeye/

Over the course of the commissioning phase of the mission (3 December 2018 – 21 June 2021), a number of different instrument configurations were tested to try and maximize the scientific quality of the images finally settling on a configuration on 16 April 2021 that was decided would be the default as we moved into nominal operations. The current calibration configuration that is used in our production system and that is provided in new version of SeaDAS that will fully support HawkEye data and is being released today, is optimized for data collected after that date.

With the transition to operations, all HawkEye data starting with the very first image taken on March 21st, 2019 through today are now available for browse, download and ordering on the OceanColor Web Browser.

It is anticipated that within the next few weeks, we will start providing the opportunity to the international research community with the ability to schedule the HawkEye instrument to acquire images anywhere in the world and will be sending out all the details on how to do that soon.

Source: Gene Carl Feldman, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center